ell provided we had no
"January thaw" and then we lost our supplies.

The only fruit we had for winter use was dried apples, wild plums, wild
crab apples and cranberries. In the season, we had wild berries which
were very plentiful. There was a cranberry marsh a half mile west of
Lake Calhoun, on what is now Lake Street, where we used to go to gather
berries. One day a party of four drove to the marsh and just as we were
about to alight, we saw that a large buck had taken possession of our
field. We did not dispute his claim, but silently stole away. That same
autumn a bear entered the garden of W. D. Washburn, who lived on Fifth
Street and Eighth Avenue and ate all of his sweet corn.

About this time the settlers on Lake Minnetonka were clearing their
claims in the "Big Woods" burning most of the timber, but some of the
hard maple was cut as cordwood and hauled to Minneapolis and sold for
from $2.00 to $2.50 a cord.

The winters were cold but clear and bright. The few neighbors were
hospitable and kind and I doubt if there has been a time in the history
of Minneapolis when its citizens were happier than they were in the
pioneer days of the early sixties.

There were few public entertainments, but they enjoyed gathering at the
houses of their neighbors for a game of euchre and occasionally for a
dance in Woodmans' Hall which was situated on the corner of Helen
Street, now Second Avenue, and Washington Avenue. One violinist
furnished the music. Sleighing, horse racing on the river and skating
were the out-of-doors amusements for the winter. A favorite place for
skating was in a lot situated on Nicollet Avenue between Fourth and
Fifth Streets. Nicollet Avenue had been raised above the grade of this
lot, causing a depression which filled with water in the fall. There was
a small white house in the center of the lot and the skaters went around
and around it, and no skating park was more greatly enjoyed.

At the time the war broke out, the town began to show signs of
recovering from the effects of the panic of 1857 and its wonderfully
beautiful surroundings attracted new settlers and the foundation of the
great commercial city was laid.

Dr. Stewart of Sauk Center.

I was government physician for many years and so was back and forth all
the time. I used to meet old man Berganeck, an old German, who carried
supplies for the government. He always walked and knit stockings all the
way. This was very common among the G